Baron Estates – Student Reviews On Letting Agents

We are young couple who were in desperate need to rent a flat two years ago. Young and naive, we thought this letting agency was actually trying to help us. How badly we have mistaken. They presented newly decorated flat, with huge smile, assuring us that everything in flat is working. When we started to ask about bills and what kind of meters this flat has, gentleman who arranged viewing for us suddenly got nervous. He explained that Landlord will inform us later on. First surprise – even more fees. We had paid security deposit, and registration/credit check fee, but we also had to pay 1 month rent – which was actually higher than advertised by agency (included fee for “cleaning”) and another fee – item deposit (80£). Agent just shrug and said it is unfair, they did not know about it, it is Lanlord’s decision. What was “cleaning” fee about, I do not know, as surrounding areas looks like third country slum. We paid, anyway, and moved it. For using gas appliances, we had to top up card first. But cooker did not work even after that. Not even hot water. Not heating. Not washing machine. I must admit, crying for help, I was coming to Barons Estate agency every week. Everytime the same thing. You need to contact landlord, we have nothing to do with that. They did call him few times, I give them that. Hot water was sorted out after three weeks, washing machine after two months, heating took until september (we have moved in may). We paid our first electricity bill after a year of demanding that we want to pay it. It turned out that two flats were sharing the same electric meter and bill is supposed to be shared 50:50. Neither agent or Lanlord provided this information to us, we found red notice from E-on about debt over £800, which was still registered with previous tenant, who died there! Lucky for us, we found private landlord and we are moving out. Now the fun begins! Day after handing out 2 months notice, Kelly from Barons Estates is bombarding me with phonecalls and arranged viewings. In my own free time, I have to let complete strangers to walk between my personal things and that is still two months before we are going to vacate the flat. I also mentioned poor quality of flat to agent (burnt out sockets, leaking roof, missing doorbells, broken radiators) but he just said: ” We are only managing renting of this property, landlord is responsible for maintenance, we have nothing to do with that.” I must admit, I am quite concerned about getting my deposit back, and especially after writing this review. I was very disappointed with service this letting agency provides and if you are looking for renting a property, ask, ask, ask and if they can not answer you, do not risk it.

Been with Baron Estates for nearly 18 months now and so far so good. Takes a while for them to get problems dealt with, but I assume this is because we are students and are not likely to complain about the time taken. Apart from that no real complaints. They use a general handyman who fixes all our issues and he’s pretty informative and efficient. Try to haggle the initial price down and work out a deal with the agent, as they may charge slightly over what the property is actually worth and will add admin fees to this as well. Generally they leave you alone for the majority of the year so no real hassle caused, although all depends on how the landlord they’re representing wants the property to be managed. Some flaws but in general a good letting agent.